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Council's Executive Members detail their priorities

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Members of the Council’s Executive have published their priorities for the period up to 2020 to help support the Our Manchester strategy for the city.

The move is part of a bid to enhance political oversight of the strategy’s delivery and the overall, and individual, accountability of Executive Members.

Priorities, both collective and those of individual Executive members are set out in a report to its meeting on Wednesday 19 October.

Executive Members will continue to be held accountable through scrutiny committees and in addition will report twice a year to the most appropriate scrutiny committee on their work and its progress, as well as at community-based Listening In Action events during the year. Progress against the overall Our Manchester Strategy will be measured through a series of indicators in the annual State of the City report.

Collective

The collective focus of the Executive is on delivering the Our Manchester strategy, which is a strategy for the city as a whole not just the Council and aims to guide improvements up to 2025.

The strategy recognises that while economic growth is important it is not an end in itself and if the city is to continue tackling the deep-rooted legacy of deprivation it will need to better connect residents with this success. International links will also become ever more important.

This will involve better engagement with communities and Council communications which are about listening at least as much as delivering messages.

This includes recognising what residents, and communities, are already achieving and helping them to do more. Service users should have more of a role in shaping those services – as recently happened with the homelessness charter.

Devolution, for example in health and social care integration, offers the opportunity to place a greater emphasis on prevention and early intervention to improve the lives of residents and avoid costly problems escalating.

The Council also needs to ‘get the basics right’ on universal services such as waste collection, recycling and highways and pavement repairs.

But supporting Manchester as a ‘liveable’ place also means desirable communities, good schools, affordable housing and amenities such as parks, shops and libraries as well as tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.

In achieving all this, climate change must not and cannot ignore be ignored.

All of this needs to be delivered in the context of ongoing cuts which means the Council needs to keep streamlining processes and identifying appropriate commercial opportunities.

Individual Executive Member priorities

Leader – Sir Richard Leese

Tackling the North/South divide

Ensuring that devolution delivers for residents

Economic development

Council's relationship with residents

Deputy Leader (Housing and Regeneration) – Cllr Bernard Priest

Communications to support the Our Manchester strategy and ensuring basic services are effective

Affordable housing

Housing and links to business and employment

Reducing worklessness

Deputy Leader (Our Manchester) – Cllr Sue Murphy

Reducing family and child poverty

Supporting the Our Manchester strategy including fairness and community cohesion, and engaging the voluntary sector

Executive Member for Adult Health and Wellbeing – Cllr Paul Andrews

Mental health services and the prevention of mental illness

Integrated health and social care

Tackling homelessness

Reducing the isolation of vulnerable people

Executive Member for Culture and Leisure – Cllr Luthfur Rahman

Inclusive and affordable leisure offer for all Manchester people with increased access

Youth Trust, youth strategy and the youth offer

Park strategy and libraries

Executive Member for Children’s Services – Cllr Sheila Newman

Delivering Ofsted improvements including safeguarding, fostering and adoption and reducing the number of looked after children

Reducing demand for support services through early help

A place in a good school for all Manchester children – every school a good school

Executive Member for Neighbourhood Services – Cllr Nigel Murphy

Clean streets

Re-negotiate GM Waste Deal

Manage the Biffa waste contract

Increasing recycling rate

Reducing crime and anti-social behaviour in the light of the new policing model

Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources – Cllr John Flanagan

Ensuring procurement delivers the best value for Manchester

Value for money

Supporting thinking around the strategic budget

Focusing the budget towards the implementation of the Our Manchester Strategy

Reducing sickness levels among council staff

Fair treatment of staff

Executive Member for Environment – Cllr Rosa Battle

Roads (including tackling/preventing potholes) and pavements

Keeping traffic moving

Tackling climate change

Improvements to transport infrastructure

Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “The Our Manchester approach recognises that the opportunities facing Manchester can’t be grasped - or the challenges facing it dealt with - by the Council alone but only by working with residents, businesses and other partners.

“The Executive does have a real leadership role within this and part of this is about being transparent about what we are trying to achieve and accountable for the progress which is, or isn’t, being made. Setting out these priorities is an important part of this process.”